1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to the electronics field, and more specifically, to an electronic device that includes multiple heat sinks and multiple chips.
2. Description of the Related Art
Each electronic device typically comprises a chip, for example, of semiconductor material, on which one or more electronic components are integrated, and a package wherein the chip is embedded for protecting it and for allowing access to its terminals.
In this regard, the package typically comprises an insulating body having exposed leads, each one of which is electrically connected to a corresponding terminal of the chip (for example, by a “wire-bonding” connection technique). The leads of the package are used for connecting it (and hence the corresponding terminals of the chip) to external circuits. For such purpose, the electronic device is typically mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB) comprising such external circuits. In a typical implementation, based on through-hole technology (THT), the leads of the package comprise conductive leads suitable to be inserted into through-holes of the PCB and back-welded on it.
A very widespread class of electronic devices is represented by electronic devices for power applications (e.g., for motors control and power supplies), or power devices, which comprise electronic components able to withstand high operative currents and/or voltages, for example, of the order of 0.3-300 A and 12-1,500V, respectively.
As it is known, the power devices are subject to considerable heating during their operation. For this reason, they are typically designed and used in a way ensuring adequate heat dissipation properties (so as to avoid overheating phenomena to the corresponding chips that might cause malfunction or breakage).
For example, each through-hole power device is provided with a heat-sink connected to the chip for dissipating the heat produced by it during its operation outwards. For such purpose, the heat-sink typically comprises a plate exposed on a side surface of the insulating body free from the conductive leads. Furthermore, in use, such a power device is typically fixed to a plate of conductive material (also mounted on the PCB) in contact with the exposed plate (in this way, such plate acts both as a support member for the power device and as external heat-sink). For this purpose, the power device is usually provided with a through-hole for its fixing to the plate (for example, by screw or bolt).
As it is known, each one of such power devices comprises a single chip, which integrates a single electronic component. This is due both to technical reasons—for example, as the presence of the through-hole brings limitations in terms of usable space—and economic reasons. In some cases, this may cause some drawbacks.
In fact, some applications require very high operative voltage and current values, e.g., higher than the operative voltage and/or current of the single power device. In order to achieve such operative values, typically it is necessary to employ replicated structures of same power devices being separately mounted on the PCB; for example, in case of power transistors, this may be achieved by parallel connection thereof on the PCB.
However, a structure of this type is not completely satisfactory in terms of size and complexity.